Home Permissions Reset

For years Mac people have turned to resetting the Permissions on their Macs as a troubleshooting procedure. Then, a few macOS’s ago, Apple removed this feature stating it was not longer necessary. No longer necessary? Yeah sure. Some Mac users, myself included, have experienced Permissions problems in the latest iterations of the Mac OS, namely High Sierra and now Mojave. This usually occurs right after upgrading to the operating system in question. So, what can we do about these issues? Read on my friends for a possible answer.

Repair Home Permissions

As I stated, after updating to High Sierra and Mojave I have experienced occasional Permissions issues. After doing some research and dinking around with this issue for a while I have finally found a solution that works, at least it does for me. The solution is a free App called Repair Home Permissions by The Electric Light Company. This is a neat little free App produced by Howard Oakley. Mr. Oakley has a few one off Apps on the Electric Light Company site, you should definitely pay the site a visit.

If you are having Permissions problems in High Sierra or Mojave, then download and install the RepairHomePermissions App. Once it is installed boot it up and follow the directions in the App window:

This involves clicking on your Home Folder to select it (not your whole hard drive, just the Home Folder) and then following the instructions in the RepairHomePermissions App window. Read them and follow along carefully or this procedure does not work.

Once you have followed all the instructions in this window, click on the “Repair Permissions” button. The RepairHomePermissions App runs a very lengthy Terminal Script and posts the results:

Once the App has finished this procedure, I recommend a Restart of your Mac just on general principles. After running this little App on my High Sierra install and just recently on my Mojave install, my Permissions issue were gone. And, I did not experience any ill effects on my Mac.

Conclusion

If you are having Permissions issues on your High Sierra or Mojave OS, I recommend downloading this App and giving it a try. It worked for me and I do not believe it can hurt anything. The Developer does not guarantee it will fix every issue, but it has helped some people like yours truly. By the way, the App also works in the Sierra macOS if you happen to be running it.